Today's game

A lineup with a twist…

Furcal, SS

Pierre, CF

Nomar, 1B

Kent, 2B

Gonzalez, LF

Martin, DH

Betemit, 3B

Ethier, RF

Lieberthal, C

And welcome to the blogosphere, Diamond Leung. Diamond covers us for the Riverside Press Enterprise and is one of the youngest beat writers in the country. He’s got fresh ideas and interesting views that he’ll be posting here daily. For now, I’ll try to forgive him for growing up in in SF as a Giants fan. That means two of our beat writers are blogging, a third paper that covers us has a blog and of course, MLB.com, which covers us daily, is the home of all baseball blogs.

really like the martin DH thing, although I would have liked to see Laroche getting to see some pitches, is grady punishing him? and how could you have possibly thought the game was in the bag yesterday? in the game of baseball there is no such thing.

taht hit and run the angels just put on reminded me of a point i wanted to make last night but i just forgot to do it so i’ll do it now…

If anyone remembers last night I believe it was in the 4th inning maybe not sure. Anyways Martin was on 1st and Ethier was up with 2 outs. The count was 1-2 and Grady puts on a hit and run. Am I the only one that thinks it was just bad managing? why put on a hit and run with a 1-2 count with 2 outs! any logical person who know that it was going to be a offspeed pitch and probably out of the zone. Ethier swings and grounds out on a low change.

If by hittable you mean people were able to swing and put the bat on it…which can be said of every pitcher…half of those hits were very weakly hit. 1 HR and 2 doubles against him in 6 2/3, not like he was getting pounded.

Of course I can’t argue with the result of 6 runs, but he wasn’t getting lit up. **** hits all night. That’s my point. That happens to every pitcher, sometimes the hits just find the holes in the defense.

How many games have the Dodgers won when Lieberthal starts behind the plate?

While I’m posting a lot, let me just say that I HATE the DH rule. It will always favor the AL in games vs the NL. Also, AL teams basically have a player on their team who isn’t playing baseball, just hitting.

I wonder if it will take another 4 or 5 starts by Henderson and Tomko before we get to see Bills in a meaningful game, like back in a starting position. I think everybody on this forum knows what to eventually expect from Henderson and Tomko starts – why doesn’t Grady?

Our Dodgers really need to beat the Angels tomorrow. Getting swept is the easiest way to kill the first place momentum. We can’t rely on the Padres to lose whenever we do. They always have a way of being a thorn in our side. Go Blue!

The Dodgers are beating themselves right now. Don’t get frustrated, don’t talk about this and that. Do. The team is filled with wonderful professionals and outstanding veterans who knows how to win despite having weak arms and so on, so I expect to see the team improve any second now. It is built that way!

Are the hitters pressing too hard with runners in scoring position? Betemit just went swinging at something he should have left. Who knows? Either way, this game felt lost from the moment the Angels scored their unearned run. Sigh, sigh and sigh again.

Here’s to hoping we recover to another 5-1 homestand in our home park :-)

everyday grady trots out pierre in the 2 hole he his conceding runs. our offense is pathetic as is…..yeah sure we got through on a guy like wainwright, but he has been horrible this whole season. our offense really shows its true colors when we face any teams 1, 2 and 3 starters even. if this team faced 4 and 5 starters all year lookout. not reality though. if grady just played some percentages, this would come as no surprise. betemit needs to get benched for good. its so funny how he has one good game and gurnick’s already got a puff piece basically saying we dont trust andy laroche. this is sickening.

of course griffon, this team doesnt have the firepower to give up unearned runs, especially against decent pitchers…..escobar got rocked for 7 runs i believe last outing, and we cant play small ball and get a runner over to third with one out…….ah well betemit would have k’d anyways. pitiful.

I was afraid that when we played teams over 5oo this would happen. Has this team ever come back after it was 3 or 4 runs down? If so I can’t remember it. That’s one of the problems that I see. Also there are 3 or 4 guys who should be replaced, and soon.

You guys are really good at not getting too high when things are going great. But, you must STOP acting like the sky is falling and your cat just got killed everytime we have a bad game or series. It’s the ups and downs of a very very very long season. Sure this stinks everytime they fail to score when they should or the other team takes advantage of our mistakes. We have issues that need to be addressed and because we’re losing they’ll be addressed, cause that’s when changes are made, when you lose. Don’t leap off the pier now or even if we fall from first, it’s a long season.

Yeah – that’s why this team’s good record is mostly a mirage – we can’t beat good teams. At least we can beat up on the bad ones to keep that sweet postseason hope simmering – until we get swept out of the postseason!

There’s guys in the team that are a net loss. At any time, a team will have some of these. That’s just baseball. Your whole team is not going to be 330 AVG. or 1.00 ERA studs. The up and downs arrive and you try and roll with them. We have some tough times ahead with the Brewers coming into town and then an away series at the hot-of-late Nationals. If we pull out of May limping, I’ll declare this team a stinker. Before then, I’ll just whine and sigh at the bout of ineptitude that’s descended on the team of late.

I think you are in denial if you actually feel that Grady & Ned will make the changes needed to improve this team.. They have already shown thier unwillingness to do so… The only way we will improve is if the old timers and the players like Pierre who make a lot of money get injured.. Just like last year when they were forced to bring in Martin and Either…

Ned & Grady are just plain stubborn and unwilling to admit they have made mistakes…

Alex. I think we all understand that this is a long season filled with ups and downs. I tend to think, however, that the frustration displayed by some people on this blog (myself included) is a result of things starting to pan out the way most reasonable folks expect them to.

Tomko and Hendrickson should not be starting.

Pierre should not hit at the top of the line-up

Betemit should be benched.

Bill, LaRoche, and Kemp should get their fair shot!

I would make these same statements even if we had swept the Angels.

I’m tired of all this “we’re in first place” talk. The fact is this team has some critical deficiencies that must be addressed.

You think management in New York and Boston are ever satisfied with simply being in first place. We’re better than that. Lets hope management comes around.

Yah, fantastic Gonzo makes his appearance! Why isn’t Kemp up here and playing instead of Gonzo and Clark? Kemp might actually improve as the season goes along, while we all know where Gonzo and Clark are headed.

We should be cleaning up on teams under .500, and we are. However, to say that we should be cleaning up on over .500 teams is ridiculous… otherwise, they’d not be good teams either.

Listen… we’re going to lose some series… and this one certainly stinks for sure. But at last check… yep… just making certain my facts are straight… the Dodgers have only 3 hits today! To lay the demise of the day on any one individual Dodger player is idiotic at best. This one has been a team effort all around… and this includes the decision making process of manager Grady Little. Somebody please explain to me why it is that Grady consitently bats the teams’ best hitter in the sixth slot??? Why do we have a bench player who is batting .220 in the middle of the order playing DH? And why are we making Kelvim Escobar appear to be the second coming of Pedro Martinez? The offense is horrible and we’ve not been scoring runs. The team cannot continue to rely on the starting pitching to keep the other team to two runs or less on each and every start.

Bottom line, we should be cleaning up on the sub .500 teams, and we should win at least 6 of 10 against teams with an above .500 winning percentage. To do this consistently the offense needs some tweaking, especially in the middle of the lineup… and it needs to be done within the next month… or we may have to watch us futilly slip out of the division race. We play a lot of “good” teams coming up… so stay tuned… we’re about to have our litmus test much earlier than we might think.

No, it’s not denial, but I’m not going to go into some long winded monologue about why Coletti will make the moves necessary. Just look at the roster from April 2006 and then look at where we ended up with in September. Do you forget the fact that every single member of the bullpen that started the 2006 season was changed by Coletti and the entire bullpen we have today is shaped by him. Saito/Beimel/Broxton etc… all were brought up and look how great the bullpen is now? Coletti will make the change and you’re fooling yourself thinking he’s gonna sit back and let this continue. The man is also not stupid enough to trade any of our kids, you underestimate what Coletti has done for this team since Depo blew it up 2 1/2 years ago.

sl7180… You bet I’m acting like that. Dude’s got 8 hits in 33 at bats. You think Martin might have fared better in the fifth slot? How about Ethier hitting sixth in this game then? (yes… Martin should be batting second, but we know this isn’t going to happen, so I’m not even mentioning it.) Saenz hasn’t been playing much, so why is he batting so high in the order? That was my point. We have better sticks to be hitting fifth…

I’ll give Colletti his due for not having expediently traded off much of our prospect base, assuming that Guzman, Jackson and Tiffany don’t come around to being major leaguers. However, what has he really achieved on the trading front? Furcal was obviously a good signing. Schmidt is still an open question, although I supported the deal, but he may be another venerable veteran whose best days are past. Saito, Beimel and Broxton were brought up from our own organization after they had proven themselves in Spring Training and at Vegas. Given Colletti’s record with actual trades (Hendrickson, Tomko, Baez, Seay, Betemit and others that I’ve already forgotten) I don’t want to exactly give him a set of trading cards. Now would be a good time to get some of our youngsters up here to see what they can do, since the established veterans are not doing much.

I’m just wondering what happen to all the Pierre, Furcal and Martin I’ve been hearing in the first 3 order. I would love to see how that would happen. I will agree on Saenz batting 5th but can you really see him batting lower.

Saenz went 0 for 8 as the DH… hitting in the fifth slot. Let’s not do this one again, okay Grady? I like the Lieberthal/Martin combination for DH when playing AL teams. Martin playing catcher on most days with Lieberthal spelling Martin a few times. That would be ideal… and would get Lieberthal some more AB’s.

Kemp has improved alot on his ability to lay off and hit breaking balls…and those same things were said about Dye early in his career. I don’t think its going to be a huge problem. I don’t see the harm in letting him improve at the mlb level, something they are going to need to do anyways.

Well concerning Saenz I personally don’t have a problem with him being the DH against lefties. Problem was we didn’t face a lefty this series, so it was a rough series for Saenz and everyone else. I really like the Lieberthal idea to give Martin’s legs a rest like they did yesterday. I also would’ve liked to of seen Betemit as the DH, maybe in Toronto or Tampa Bay that will happen. I just have a feeling LaRoche will be back in there tomorrow, call it a hunch…

Wow what can i say but such a pathetic weekend series to watch!! Today’s game rest soley on the shoulders of Wilson Betemit!! To not be able to handle routine groundballs is ridiculous he should not be in the starting lineup. We have more than half a season left and i dont know if i can take much more of this poor play for very long. If i am being to negative then so be it at least i am showing some emotion. It just looks like the team is content with playing this way. I DONT GET IT! Lowe should not be getting such poor support while he is pitching this good we are wasting his terrific outings!

hahah lol slex….the only reason ethier came up, if i remember correct was jose cruz jr was stinking it up at about the same rate gonzo has, what do we give gonzo some senior discount to turn it around, his ab’s look pathetic.nice kenny lofton ref up there, that is really a bummer when you think we could have had lofton much cheaper. that is disgusting that lofton would be leading our team in homers right now with a ******** four, outslugging our middle of the order guys. i agree ned built a nice bullpen, but the pieces were there. neds bullpen ****** so bad he had to fix his problem, and thank god for logan white there. his offensive additions have been garbage outside of furcal. remember guys this is a 115 million dollar team, and we got juan pierre LUGO, and schmidt? ned didnt have the balls to pay for a real player like soriano, or aramis ramirez, so here we are with a 115 million dollar plan b offense, with outstanding pitching. what good does it do if we cant score runs? neds plan b makes me sick to my stomach.

My first instinct is to rely on the veterans, but too many errors and wasted pitching performances, not much in the way of production, not to mention the inability to even move the runners over has me beginning to wonder.
That said, I still must agree with Alex: now is not the time for panic!!!!!!!!!

Besides, I’d rather jump off the Manhattan pier. I used to jump off that one, but not because of a mini loosing streak.

hahahaah manhattan pier is fun…..lol. ethier not moving martin over early in the game was not a good sign of things to come knouff….at least we know when lowe pitches basically we have to score four runs and we win….thats looking like a tall order for that lineup.

Please stop all the whining! Every team whiffs a series now and again. Don’t start thinking the ends is near – at least not until the team goes completely in the tank.
Look at the Angels. Last year they went 5-18 in May. Pretty much blew their season before the All Star break. And yet they were in the division race right up to game 160. What hitting did they have? Squat! What defense did they have? None to speak of! They led MLB in errors!

ricky ledee was never an everyday starter for us kssparkuhl, the only games he started were because of injuries….he is probably one of the most fragile player in recent years. and kssparkuhl dont disagree that our plan b offense is slumping, the gonzo and pierre signings at this point a quarter into the season are just downright bad. thats 16 million i believe between our 2 and 5 hitters. i would have rather spent that on one stud player but hey we had to go with plan b. this was projected. this is our glaring weakness. we need a power bat badly. pitchers love our offense.

i assume you’re referring to plan A get as power hitter/plan B acquire speed w/ pierre? See i think this was silly from the beginning. We needed power in the offseason, didn’t get it, and acquired TWO players with no power instead. Either you need power or you don’t. We needed it, we didn’t get it.

And now we’re forced into trading away young talent b/c we couldn’t get what we needed in the first place.

So, I’m going to LA to watch the Cubs series next weekend and I have a couple quick questions:

1. How early do they open the gates? Can I get there to watch BP? I’ve always been going with other people, so I was at their mercy.

2. What’s the deal with “Photo Day”? I saw it on the schedule and it sounded really intriguing. Then, my mind started wandering and I got pretty excited about the whole concept.

I haven’t said much on here recently, but I’ve been following all your conversations. I started a new job and it’s much more time-consuming than the last one. Here’s my 2 cents:

Has anyone noticed that JP’s bunting skills **** all of a sudden? And he can’t seem to track a fly ball in Dodger Stadium. Gonzo? Seriously? If I had my way, the order would look a little bit more like this:

Furcal

Martin

Ethier

Kent

Nomar

LaRoche

Gonzo

Pierre

Pitcher

That way, we would actually have our “power” in the middle of the lineup. We’re getting more production right now from our 6, 7, and 8 guys than from our 2, 3, and 5 guys. Kent’s still hitting, but he can’t get RBI’s when no one’s on in front of him. Of his 6 HR’s, aren’t all of them solo’s? Pierre might actually be useful if he hit in a spot where they would want to walk him. Of course, he’ll have to learn the difference between a ball and a strike first. I swear, I have better strike zone recognition than he does. Especially on high stuff. RELEASE BETEMIT!!! PLEASE!!! His pitiful excuse for defense today lost us the game. He may have only gotten scored with one error, but any idiot should be able to transfer the ball from glove to throwing hand. Especially with two on and two out!!! My 17-year old brother could’ve made that play, and he’s blind in one eye. And the grounder he booted? Pitiful. Some help on those questions above would be great.

What pains me the most is that Juan Pierre is here to stay. Let’s face facts here. A lot of us, me included, have been pretty hard on the guy, when truthfully Juan Pierre is an okay ballplayer at best. By no means is he someone you build your team around and sign to a 5yr/50mill deal. That’s 5 freakin years Ned! Lets for one ignore (as so obviously Ned did) the idea that Matt Kemp or D. Young could play center field for the big club. T. Hunter and A. Jones are in the final years of their respective deals. Those two guys are superstar, 5 tool guys. Those are the kind of guys you back the armored truck up for…. not Juan Pierre.
You hear it all of the time, pitching wins the playoffs. But what good is stellar pitching when you can’t manufacture runs. Look up and down the Dodger line up and their isn’t one bat who if you were an opposing pitcher you would need to really guard against, or for that matter, fear….No es bueno folks!

dualtone428 – They open the parking lot gates and all of the stadium gates (except for the Right Field Pavilion) two hours before game time. (They open the RFP a half hour later, but this is the “All you can eat” area only). The best areas for taking in BP are the Left Field Pavilion and the Field Level near the foul poles.

On Photo Day, they let you onto the field via center field (between the two pavilions) and the players walk back and forth in a grated off area. They do not let the players sign autographs or take personal photos with the fans (they are on one side of the grating and the fans are on the other – at least that is how it was last year).

I find it absolutely hilarious the various posts stating that Betemit cost the Dodgers the victory today. Yeah, he committed two errors. Whoopee doo. Let’s take the 1st inning run off of the board. Betemit’s play in the fifth was ruled a single and the one following it was a throwing error by furcal that allowed two runs to score. Oooooo… bad Furcal… bad. Oh, but he helps the club… he’s forgiven.

Regardless of the errors… and might I remind everyone that this is a TEAM sport?… regardless of the errors, the Dodgers only managed five hits and ONE runs… Yes, a BIG, FAT, “1”! No matter how badly one wants to place the blame on Betemit, and yes, in a close game, two errors would seem to be enough to hang him with the responsibility… but no matter how much Betemit stunk up the field today, it still doesn’t absolve the team from only scoring one stinking run. This is a TEAM sport with individual achievments… it’s what makes the game special… and this was a game that should end up in the garbage heap. Blame this one on the lack of offense… again. Period.

Graffiti… I am not in disagreement with you… plan “B”onehead stinks! I was simply refering to the event that led to Ethier being called up… I thought you were asking about that… sorry if I misunderstood you.

we should be going with Plan “y”. YOUTH! look at the Brewers They went young with players from there system and i think they are pretty good. Im sure we remember all the champion dodger teams that were built from within. Today was day one of me not wathcing Dodger games until Gonzo is out of the lineup! hopefully it happens soon. I can’t find anything else too well except for today i worked so that helped.

getting rid of Tomko, Hendrickson, Betemit and GOnzo are rather realistic i think. Insert Billingsley and Kuo into the rotation. Andy La ROche at third and Kemp in left and we will win the west easily. Right now we will be lucky to be over 500 at the break.

I’m totally in favor of Plan Y, as named by Max above. I’d even settle for 3 out of 4 of those replacements on the team. One more “veteran” that I’d ideally like to see replaced is Grady, but that’s too much to ask for at once.

Grady does all right for a manager. He has his occasional lapses. So do all of them.

In the end, the goods have to be produced on the field. So far, this 2007 team differs from the 2006 in one respect: most of the veterans are healthy. And is that ever a sad thing to see! Last year we got to see some of the young players because the vets got hurt, and the young players carried us well. This year, we’re stuck with “Want an extra base?” Gonzalez in left. Jeff Kent is batting only .179 when he swings and makes contact on the first pitch, down from a .346 AVG over the preceding three years. And yet, his favourite thing remains to swing at that first pitch. We’re also stuck with non-veteran, toothpick-wielding Pierre and his loopy girly throws in center. Have you ever watched him out there when there’s a runner on third? He suddenly loses all confidence, looking awkward behind the ball. Terrified, in fact, because he knows that run will score and he can’t throw him out.

This is the team management will field day after day, though. You just can’t sit a veteran or a big signing down. You’d much rather let them drag the team down, drag the entire 120 million payroll through the dirt.

I’m very worried by the Dodgers leading the field in errors and lagging in all offensive categories except OBP. Yes, we can get the runners on, we can’t get them home. That doesn’t help at all.

Well, you don’t start fixing only when the team is staring at a below .500 on the season. You start fixing before, so you don’t get in the hole. Come on, Dodgers. Put a team out there that’s not laughing stock.

PS: I see Baez lost another game for the O’s. That is a bad arm, good riddance and boo that we signed him in the first place.

It seems strange that nobody is asking for Loney as a bring-up to the major league club anymore. I’m afraid that we may have lost one of our best prospects in the frenzy to sign up Nomar for another two years. Loney seemed to be as qualified as anybody could get at the end of last season, and he seemed to prove himself again in Spring Training, only to be sent back down because his natural position was filled. You can blame him to some extent for apparently letting his attitude diminish his play at Vegas this season, but he is still a very young man and understandably discouraged. I think he was ready for the majors, and I would rather have seen him up here and developing instead of seeing Nomar with no power at all and with his playing capacity just deflating this season. What this may come to is that we may eventually have to trade for a first baseman as well as 3rd before this is all over, and it is a shame. But that is how this management’s obsession and philosophy over so called veterans loses valuable prospects even when they’re not traded. Now you wish we had given up Loney to somebody else and at least received some decent value in return.

First, about the comments about negative comments. I for one am not a poster that loves to post negative comments about our play or players every chance i get, like it seems some do on this blog, but rather share my input as to what i say in a game, series, or season so far! Now the key word is BLOG which mean, expressed OPINIONS!!!!!!!! Like ive said before on this Blog you have to take the bad with the good that is what this post is all about, and if you think other wise then there may be another Blog that is more toned down for your liking. Now i do agree that some on here do take it to the extreme which bugs me but i know that im going to get that here on a BLOG.

Now as to my previous post Ksspark, i can tell you right now that my post was out of frustration of having to watch the ANGELS sweep my beloved Dodgers so i understand that my statements could have been taken as one of the others who continuely bash our boys. BUT, you cannot get away from the fact that if Betemit can come up with both grounders Lowe gets out of both innings without allowing any runs because both were made with two outs. Now i did make the mistake, and remember i said it was out of frustration, that he cost us the game, what i should have said was he majorly changed the course of the game. Sure we didnt get many hits but if no runs are scored on the errors (i know the second ball to betemit was ruled a hit but we all know what it should have been) and the way Lowe pitched we had a great chance to pull one out with the 1 lonely run we got towards the end of the game. So that should take care of that on my end about my frustration rittled post!

Lastly, “It has to do with all of the negativity that is posted here on this blog on a daily (if not hourly) basis, and by the same people over and over again. I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that a lot of these posters are very young and have very little patience.”

I find that MILDLY OFFENSIVE only because i am a young poster. Who is to say that us “YOUNG POSTERS” have no better wisdom of the game as some “OLDER POSTERS” do?! Know i must say that yes the years helps a bit but some of us “YOUNG POSTERS” love the game just as much if not more than some of you “OLDER POSTERS” so i dont think we should be profiling our ability to post by our age! I feel some on here know what they are talking about and some dont, i also find myself learning new things about the game everyday wether it be on here or another source but i dont think to myself i wonder if the guy or girl is a young or old poster! But like i have said before i love coming on here to view the very different opinions and also to express mine, and i am sorry to those who have been driven away form the joy of blogging with your fellow Dodger lovers!

SIDE NOTE STORY:

Fansince53 “RON” (now i know your name) I had season seats in the pavillion last year and sat behind you about 5 rows and 1 section over but i would always see you there before the game watching batting practice with your chair, glove, and binoculars hanging. I dont know if your remember but one game i sat a couple seats away from you and during batting practice me and my girlfriend were waiting for Andre (my girls favortie Dodger, like most other girl dodger fans) to throw up a BP ball to here as she was decked out in her Either jersey, well he finally threw a ball our way and a little girl jumps out to the steps and jumps for the ball and misses as it drops into my glove. Now i was more than exstatic to get the ball for my girl but as i turn and look you are standing there cheering like everyone else for me to give the ball to the little girl. LOL i looked at my girl and she gave me a smile (one of those do i have to smiles) as she gave the ball to the little girl! We werent able to get another BP ball all year (although we werent able to make a lot of the ealry BP days) so thanks alot. HAHAHA im totally kidding on the last part there but its nice to finally semi-meet you. I have seats in the lower reserve now but i did watch you catch that big fly by Olmedo on tv so congrats on that!

I’m holding out hope for this team. All it would take to turn them into a much better team ,would be for Nomar,Gonzo ,and Pierre to collide in the outfield while tripping over Kent and Betemit. Tomko=RUN DONOR

Thanks for noticing Kevin. It has nothing to do with my blood pressure (although I was a bit tense in the stands at Angel Stadium this past weekend). It has to do with all of the negativity that is posted here on this blog on a daily (if not hourly) basis, and by the same people over and over again. I could be wrong, but I’m guessing that a lot of these posters are very young and have very little patience.

I am a die-hard, true-blue, 100% Dodger fan and I have been so for my entire life (hence the handle fansince53). I will be a Dodger fan until the day I die. I have lived through the good times and the bad. I have seen players come and go – both good and bad. But, no matter who wears the Dodger uniform, the game goes on – and it always will.

I refuse to participate in the chronic and constant bashing that goes on here. Sure, I have issues with Betemit, Pierre, Gonzalez, and several others, but it does our team (and our fans) no good whatsoever to constantly bash and berate them. It brings the general mood of this once very positive blog site down. I understand the passion that we all have for the Dodgers. It is a beautiful thing. But the constant negativity here is very depressing and it only creates animosity between us.

I will continue to post here from time to time when I have something fun, exciting, and positive to say, but, as I said, I refuse to join into the negative B.S. that is all too prevalent here these days.

Speaking of fun and exciting, Brad Penny tossed a batting practice ball up to me at Angel Stadium on Saturday. I have special plans for this baseball, which you guys may (or may not) hear about a little later. It was great to see (and hear) all of the Dodger fans at Angel Stadium. When the Dodger fans started yelling “Let’s go Dodgers”, we were actually louder than the Angel fans yelling “Let’s go Angels”.

The last three games, have to be the most pathetic games I have ever witnessed both W/regards to offense & defense. Clearly something has to be done & done NOW. Start with the Manager & Coaches and work down to the players. WE NEED HELP FAST!!!!

Stay in there, kday. I’ve also been a fan since 1951, and I want changes as well. I don’t believe in glossing over team deficiencies just because I’m a fan, and particularly not misguided management philosophy. Instead of building a dynasty, which I think we could, management is compromising the best that we could be through their reliance on veterans that are well past their best performance and particularly giving in to their egos that presumbably won’t let them be sat down or moved down in the batting order.

messagebear hit the nail right on the head. Nobody likes to gripe,but we can’t understand some of managements decisions and feel this team could be much better with a few moves. It’s very frustrating seeing how this team plays, and knowing they could be much better with some in house corrections.

I think you hit it right on the head in your post about Loney, message bear. Last year was very exciting to be a Dodger fan because we got a glimpse of the future and some of the great young players poised to take over this team. This year, instead, we have backslid from that b/c of all the overrated signings ned has made. I know Loney, Kemp, and whoever else weren’t perfect last year, but think about. Last year they were performing and learning up here. This year, they’re struggling in AAA. Last year, Bills was starting, this year he’s in the pen. I love martin and ethier but that’s not an excuse why more of our young guys shouldn’t get a chance. And fans of other teams wonder why we don’t given all of our vaunted prospects a chance? I don’t know the answer.

Pleased to officially (well, sort of) meet you Sam. I apologize if you were offended by my post (mildly or otherwise). That was not my intention and I meant no offense or disrespect whatsoever to you or anyone else. My comment had absolutely nothing to do with wisdom or knowledge of the game. It had to do with patience, which generally increases with age.

Although we all want instant results, that rarely happens in this game that we all love so much (although Rafael Furcal sure gave it a good run). This is where we have to put our faith and trust in Grady Little; although I know first hand that this can be extremely difficult to do at times. (He is WAY better than Jim Tracy, that’s for sure).

Hang in there 51 – We are still in first place. Please don’t give up on the boys. They need us now more than ever.

By the way Sam, how the **** did you respond to my post when your post appears before mine? You must have ESPN (LOL!). Also, I definitely remember you and your girlfriend at that game. I apologize for putting all of that heat on you to give away that Ethier ball to the little girl who dropped it. I just always feel bad when a kid misses or drops one. That’s why I give most of the balls that I get to kids around me. The look on their face is priceless. I will say, however, that if I catch a ball off the bat, I usually keep it. As for the binoculars hanging – I always like to know who is at bat during BP, in the lucky event that I catch their ball. While patience may increase with age, eyesight diminished drastically (LOL!). During the games I use them to try to pick up the sign from the catcher so that I know what pitch is coming (and to watch the action up close from afar).

Ron –
I really do not know how that happened i was just as amazed as you are. I know i posted after your posted so i dont know quite how that happened.

I totally agree with you on that we have to be behind Grady! As you can tell in my previous posts on this blog i have always been a huge fan of Grady. I have said it before and i will say it again he is the Best Manager we have had since Lasorda! I for one think he has done a great job with the club and though some of his decision may make me think a little i know he knows what hes doing!

So have you picked up on any signs this year, maybe you can let Josh know and then he will give it to Grady and Grady will pass it on to the fellas so we can start hitting with runners in scoring position. Thats one thing that i cant seem to grasp about our guys we just cant seem to get a clutch hit at the right time. Sure you can say the lineup isnt what it should be but we also have to remember we are watching big leaguers play not Little League everyone on the team should be able to come up with a clutch hit not just putting our faith in just one player! Anyways well i will keep my eye out to see if you get any more big fly’s Ron. Ill have to get tickets for a game in LF so i can buy you a Dog or something.

messagebear i praise you as our supposed elder voice of reason. ive seen enough baseball in my 24 years, to know this team stinks. its not about being negative and not rooting for our team, matter of fact fansince53 you could try to make that same im a fan point all day, but at the end of the day so are we. i grew up a dodger fan, and played baseball my whole life and there is not alot you can say to convince me i dont have patience. the ceiling is pretty shirt for this team right now, martin and mostly pitchers could be considered bright spots. ( as well as furcal swinging of late.) lets not call a donkey a horse here. without some minor adjustments, ( ned’s stupid contracts have made them major ) this team will continue to be on the decline riding the backs of nomar, kent , and gonzo. we need some reinforcements, its not my job to name those reinforcements, thats what ned gets paid to do. a 120 million dollar payroll with a bunch of first pitch free swingers who cant crack 20 homers anymore, cant move runners over….the sugar coating’s gonna melt off here by the all star break hopefully sooner, and its gonna be a sweet day.

Yes, I can usually pick up the sign, but in all honesty, if our batters would just take a quick peek at where the catcher is setting up, they would have a better idea of what’s coming. (I have seen Jeff Kent and Russell Martin do this occasionally).

I was as upset as anyone with our very poor defense in Anaheim this past weekend, but like several have noted, it was the offensive melt-down that did us in. We simply could not put two (or more) consecutive hits together – period. I was very upset at Pierre for not bunting Furcal over in the first inning of Sunday’s game. Had he done so, Furcal would have scored. It is this lack of basic fundamentals that is painful to watch.

I sure hope that you are right about Tomko tonight. If they light him up, Grady needs to move Billingsley into the rotation and put Tomko back in the pen. That being said, I kind of think that Grady (and Ned) will wait it out for Schmidt to return before they replace Tomko with Bills. I have been watching Schmidt’s bullpen sessions and he is definitely improving. He’s still not at 90, but he definitely looks better than he did during any of his starts. But here again, great pitching doesn’t mean squat if we can’t score any runs.

Let me know when you are coming out to “The Jungle” (the Left Field Pavilion) and I’ll buy you a (root) beer.

Any dodger fan out there that wants to join a brewer fan for tonights game, I have an extra ticket. The person that was going to go had to go out of town, so if you are interested, let me know it is a pretty good infield box seat and it is free. But you have to sit by a brewers fan.

Meta

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